Sigma Announces Sony E-Mount Electronic Lens Adapters

Sigma officially announced a pair of electronic lens adapter for Sony E-mount mirrorless cameras. The new MC-11 adapters will be available for both Canon Mount (EOS) and Sigma Mount (SA) lenses. These fullframe adapters are compatible will all E-mount cameras and transmit full electronic info for aperture, autofocus and IBIS control.

“There are many challenges to designing high-quality mount converter and topping the list is aptly handling phase detection AF in newer cameras and this is where the Sigma MC-11 is groundbreaking in its support for the Sony E-mount systems,” states Mark Amir-Hamzeh, president of Sigma Corporation of America. “The new Sigma MC-11 mitigates complications with a purpose-built lens control data system engineered for maintaining superior AF functionality. So the growing number of Sony E-mount camera users who have been asking for more lens options, now have access to a large pool of lenses that fully embody Sigma’s signature quality and performance.”

The Sigma MC-11’s sleek LED display lets Sony users know if the attached Sigma lens is compatible or if MC-11 needs to be updated for that specific lens. Its internal control data system keeps detailed information on each compatible Sigma lens, automatically optimizing performance of AF drive, aperture control and other critical lens functions. The MC-11’s internal control data system also maintains continuity with key camera functions that control brightness and correct transverse chromatic aberration, distortion and more.

The complete compatibility with both Sigma lens OS and Sony in-camera OS ensures correction of camera shake and other stability issues and when used with in-camera stabilization, MC-11 allows angle shake correction in the lens. The integrated flocking helps prevent internal reflections and reduction in lens performance. In addition, the MC-11 retains important EXIF lens setting data.

Comments

it would be great if you can help us decipher what this marketing lingo means.

Does this adapter provide anything above and beyond Metabones IV for Sigma lenses?

I get there is colored light on the side that is green if the lens is one of the 19 and yellow or may be sometimes red otherwise.

For example does ti emulate native FE lens and allow tracking eye AF with A7r2? Does it provide any eye AF? Does it provide decent focus speed with A7s 1st and 2nd gen, A7R original. There was some talk about Fast Hybtid AF and this adapter providing superior results with it. Does this work with A6000 and A7 Fast Hybrid AF implementations?

I also do not quite get the stabilization explanation. Does it mean Sigma lenses will behave like 70-200/4 G lens? or more like Metabones adapted 70-200/2.8 from Canon where the lens switch toggles between camera and lens stabilization.

The lack of C-AF support is puzzling and concerning. I agree there’s a lot of marketing lingo but very little clarity in this press release. Thanks for posing about it Brian! Let’s hope it lives up to the hype.

Well. There’s a pretty decent update vid on DPReview which shows that the MC-11 converts the sigma lenses so that they provide FULL AF support including Eye-AF and AF-C and tracking modes. This is awesome news.

Haha I love how the specs talk up the advanced “LED display” showing lens compatibility, and you look at the photos and it’s literally just an LED light that flashes different colors.

Also, aside from the confusing descriptions of autofocus support, it also doesn’t seem to support autofocus during video capture.

So just so I understand though, none of the available adapters support true hybrid af (ie both contrast and phase detect simultaneously)? So you either have to choose between precision vs speed on the metabones for example. Is the Sigma going to be the game changer then and have true hybrid autofocus integration with adapted lenses?

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Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Smith creates iconic portraits of the famous and infamous for magazines, books and advertising. He has appeared on The X Factor, Fine Living Network and Israel Channel One and exhibited at the Library of Congress and the Aperture Gallery.